Indonesian police arrest 41 suspected Islamic militants

JAKARTA: Indonesian police said Saturday that they have arrested dozens of suspected Islamic militants in two separate raids on the main island of Java, as authorities get set to tighten anti-terrorism laws following last month's deadly attacks in Jakarta.

The country's elite anti-terrorism squad early Saturday arrested 36 men who were attending military-style training at a suspected jihadi camp on the remote slopes of Mount Sumbing in Central Java province, said provincial police spokesman Col. Liliek Darmanto.

He said police seized air rifles, knives, and jihadi books and flags in the raid. "We are still investigating their possible links to terrorism," Darmanto said.

Separately, five suspected militants were captured late Friday in Malang, a hilly city in East Java province, said Lt. Col. Yudho Nugroho, a local police chief.

He said police were tipped about their whereabouts after interrogating alleged militants arrested earlier of links to the Jan. 14 suicide and gun attacks in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital. Eight people were killed in those attacks, including four of the attackers.

National police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told lawmakers in a parliament hearing last week that police had arrested 33 people suspected of links to the Jakarta attacks.

In response to the attacks, Indonesia's government submitted a new anti-terrorism law to parliament this past week. The new law would revise the current one, which was passed in 2003 after bombings a year earlier on the resort island of Bali killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

The draft bill, obtained by The Associated Press, says an individual suspected of plotting to carry out an act of terrorism could be detained for up to six months without being charged. If approved, it would be the first time since the downfall of dictator Suharto in 1998 that Indonesia will see such a law enacted.

Luhut Pandjaitan, a Cabinet minister in charge of security and political affairs, said he expected lawmakers to pass the revisions within the next two months.

Indonesia, home to more than 225 million Muslims, has suffered a spate of deadly attacks by the Jemaaah Islamiyah network in the past. But in recent years, the attacks have been smaller and less deadly and have targeted government authorities, mainly police and anti-terrorism forces.